On Tuesday, Democrats picked up a state Senate seat in Wisconsin in a special election. So what? This district was heavily Republican — Trump won the district in 2016 by 17 points, and the former Republican representative, who just vacated her seat to become Governor Scott Walker’s agriculture secretary, won the seat in 2016 by 26%.
On Tuesday, the Democrat, Patty Scachtner, won the district by a whopping nine points. As Huffington Post reports, “with the win in Wisconsin, there are 34 districts that have flipped from red to blue since Trump’s inauguration.” Governor Walker signaled his concern:
Senate District 10 special election win by a Democrat is a wake up call for Republicans in Wisconsin.
— Scott Walker (@ScottWalker) January 17, 2018
Daniel Nichanian, a postdoctoral student at University of Chicago, tweeted out additional results from last night:
4 elections in deeply Trump districts tonight. All saw huge swing toward Dems compared to 2016 pres results. Using @dkelections district #s:
SC #HD99: +15% net swing toward Dems
IA #HD06: +18%
WI #SD10: +24% or +27%
WI #AD58: +25%— Taniel (@Taniel) January 17, 2018
Harry Enten of FiveThirtyEight also suggested that Republicans are in trouble:
Without an unpopular opponent for Trump, Trump's GOP's finding his unpopularity is crushing them electorally. Tonight's results on their own don't mean much, but, in context of 80+ state & federal legislative special elections, they're merely the latest sign GOP's in BIG trouble
— (((Harry Enten))) (@ForecasterEnten) January 17, 2018
Read more at the Daily Wire.
